Chapter 5-The Characters.

I would like to tell you about our facility before telling you about the characters. The radar shack and the rest of the AADCP complex. The AADCP was a long series of buildings that were all attached end to end. The purpose was to keep personnel indoors as much as possible with both living quarters and work areas. From right to left, as viewed from the roadway out front comes my description. On the right end was the shop used by the RCAT outfit that I was originally assigned to. Next came the NCO barracks where the top three grades of Non Commissioned Officers lived. From it you entered the mess hall with the officer's dining room just inside and to your right. The mess hall seated the remainder of the enlisted staff with the table opposite the coffee urn being reserved for the top three grades of NCO. From the mess hall you entered a long hallway. On the left of the hallway was our garage where we parked our three assigned vehicles. Net was a pool room, then our small PX and our day room. Next was our movie theater.

At this point, the hallway shifted from the rear of the building to the front. Next to the theater was the office of the major, the first sergeant and the company clerk. Then came the operations room with its large plotting board. Next came the communication room followed by the hobby shop. After the hobby shop was a long hallway to the power plant. The power plant supplied power to all of the units on the mountain. It had several diesel powered generators and the hallway helped isolate the noise and vibration from the rest of the complex. Overall, this building was from a block yo a block and a half long. Behind the day room were entrances from the officer quarters and from the barracks where the lower grades of enlisted men lived. This building was about thirty feet behind the main building-a quick dash.

The radar shack was about a quarter of a mile from from the main complex. It was at the end of its own road out toward the edge of the mountain. It was similar in structure to other buildings, aluminum panels, double doors, multi-pane windows. It also had a glycerin coated canvass dome under which rotated the fifteen foot radar antenna. Inside the building was the large radar system, a variety of chairs, a table and two bunk beds. The ever present, ever in use coffee pot. A supply of C Rations was also stored there as were spare parts for the radar system. In a small dark room, there was our radar screen with a small plotting board. Next to it was a bank of radio equipment.

When I arrived at the AADCP, there was a radar sergeant and a radar technician (like me). There were about a half dozen radar operators/ Shortly after my arrival, both the sergeant and the technician rotated out. I was appointed to temporary radar chief reporting to the radar office. This would last for four or five months. Our mission was to track inbound aircraft and convey that tracking information to the operations room at the AADCP. We would be “on the air” for twenty four hours then off for twenty four hours. We shared this twenty four cycle alternately with an identical radar system across the base on another mountain. This was a redundancy in the system to allow for maintenance and backup in the event of system failure. As a further redundancy, the Air Force had a radar system of yet another mountain that could “see” a longer distance than either of the Army systems. So now my work place was established and now to the people.

There are many memorable characters who left an indelible impression on my memory. The first was Johnny White. His real name was John Wayne White. Said his mom was a big fan of the actor, John Wayne, so she named Johnny after him. Johnny was from Rush Springs, Oklahoma, kind of a Buddy Holly look-alike without the glasses. One of the most carefree and fun loving people I ever met. He had a twinkle in his eye that although a bit devilish, would give you the confidence of his friendship. We passed many hours telling jokes, playing cards and laughing. We also worked hard when the time came.

Billy Roberts was from central Florida. Worked for a local newspaper before Army life. He had been stationed at a radar site on one of those Atlantic coast resort islands before coming to Thule. One with plenty of opportunities to train for Arctic duty. He was kind of quiet but neat and deliberate. He had plans for his future after the Army. I later heard that he became the editor of that newspaper in Florida.

Billy Arata was from Georgia, I think. Had an accent that gave him away. Loved to play baseball. In Thule, the baseball games occurred often in the bright sun of midnight. I was awakened many nights by the “whack” of baseballs being caught outside my window in the barracks.

The Billy's were both practical jokers, as was Johnny White. One night, two of them opened the door to my barracks room very slowly. I know one was Billy Arata. Not sure which of the other two was with him. I was lying on my stomach facing the wall opposite the doorway. As the hall light came across the wall if front of my face, the glow made me open my eyes. As I wondered what was happening, I heard Billy Arata say, “He's asleep.” Immediately i was hit in the butt by a large chunk of snow. Needless to say, I came out of my bunk in a hurry, grabbed a large fragment of the snow and went out into the hall. They had scurried out of sight quickly. I checked and there was no one in Johnny Whites room or in Billy Roberts room. I opened Billy Arata's door. No one was visible but I just knew he was there. So I threw the large snow fragment at the wall so it would spatter under the bed. Got him. We had a bid laugh over it all but I didn't really get even with him. He had been fully dressed. I had been lying in bed on top of my blanket in my t-shirt and underwear. The biggest difference was that when he hit me in the butt with the snowball, I had a large hole in the seat of my underwear. ...........................Momma always said, “Don't wear underwear with holes in them.” Now I knew why. But how did she know I would be hit in the butt with a snowball.

Joe Gornick was from northern Minnesota. Probably the only person on the whole airbase already acclimated to the cold in Thule. He was a mountain of a young man when. I was told that when he came to the AADCP, he was just averaged sized. One of the escapes from the boredom was weightlifting. Joe had really responded to the conditioning and grew in muscular definition. That long hallway that separated the power plant from the AADCP complex was where the weights were kept and where many of the guys worked out.

Johnny White, the two Billy's and Joe Gornick were radar operators. We we were on surveillance, they would rotate scope observations in thirty minute shifts. I would take rotation now and then as relief for meals or a movie. When we were off the air, someone would always man the radar shack. We would rotate that duty, too. Off air standby gave you an opportunity to catch up on letter reading and writing, sleep, book reading and so forth. When a full “alert” situation came up, the standby person would bring up the radar system and start surveillance. The rest of the crew would join shortly and remain until the alert was canceled.

It was during one of my relief stints on the radar scope that I tracked something moving extremely fast. The radar scanned a radius of 220 nautical miles. With the antenna rotating at 15 rpms, I was able to get eight plots on something flying from east to west about fifty miles north of us. The Air Force managed to get several plots to confirm something was out there. It could have been some sort of anomaly but we both tracked along the same path. What's the significance of this event? In 1958 we didn't have anything that would cover 400 miles in just over a half a minute. Maybe. A not so close “encounter”.

It was also during one of the alerts that lead to the “Cease Fire” that I mentioned at the beginning of this story. One in awhile, boredom would give way to excitement. Both explained and unexplained.